Ball in general, life on the road… on this blog, either you do or you don't.

Packing up

Another six weeks of spring have come to a close, at least for me. The Redbirds have two more Spring Training games, but the next time I see them will be Opening Day in Philadelphia. I absolutely love Florida, and I absolutely love Spring Training, but I absolutely love my wife and my dog and my cat even more. So it will be delightful to be home, even if it’s for a few days.

The players have reached the point where they’re obviously ready for the games to start counting, and heaven knows the writers have too.

With all that said, here are my predictions for 2006:First, the Cardinals — they will win 92-94 games and win the NL Central, but it will take a significant midseason trade for that to happen.

World Series (I know, I’ve said it many times, and I still believe it, it’s a fool’s errand to predict playoff series; but I have to get it out there just in case I’m right): Atlanta over Oakland

My "I Have a Feeling" teams — Atlanta, Oakland, Texas, Colorado, DetroitBasically, these are the teams that I think are better than they are being given credit for. Obviously success will have various meanings with these teams. If the Braves win 88 games and win the Wild Card, I will have been wrong on them. If the Tigers win 88 games and win the Wild Card, I will have been right. My No. 1 IHAF team is Texas, a club I think could be a real playoff contender. My No. 2 is Atlanta, which I think could win the most games in the NL.

Feel free to tell me I’m an idiot. But if you say so, come up with some predictions of your own.-M.

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6 Comments

Ok, you’re an idiot! Just kidding of course. What type of midseason trade do you think will need to happen for the Red Birds to win 92-94 games? Pitching?

Not going to make any predictions, except that I think the NL Central will be a lot closer this season, but I think the Wild Card will come from the Central again this year to either my Astros or your Cardinals.

I hope you are wrong about the Braves winning the World Series. My nephews live in
FL and are huge Braves fans. They would never let me forget it. I bought them Cardinals clothes for Christmas. Come on Cards!!!

Quick question: Everything I read has Junior Spivey starting at 2nd. That baffles me. Miles is batting .333 while Spivey is batting .138 and he doesn’t seem to be that much better defensively but I haven’t seen him play much so he could cover more ground. Anyway why doesn’t Miles get the nod at 2nd base?

Nobody is talking about the Brewers and I think that they could be very good this year. I just read that Sheets is on the DL and that might kill them but if they can stay in the hunt and get Sheets back, I believe they can battle the Cards for the division title.

The Mets should be better this year. They have a killer lineup. The starting pitching is shaky but the GM is aggressive and the owner has finally opened his wallet. I think the GM will go out and get a stud pitcher by midseason to pair with Pedro. With better starting pitching and Wagner in the bullpen, they will be tough to beat. The Braves will be good but as usual they will choke in the playoffs.

Who cares who wins the NL West, worst division in baseball.

As for the AL, interesting that you left the Yankees out of the playoffs. They had a dogfight last year. I live in NY and have seen the insanity of Yankee fan. If they don’t make the playoffs, Steinbrenner’s head will explode and there will be pandemonium in the streets of NY.

First, I have lived and died a thousand deaths as a Carinals fan since 1949 when I first saw those two magnificent birds perched on the bat on the front of Stan Musial’s uniform on a Timme Magazine cover…so I readily admit to a substantial bias. I was a ten year old little boy living in Beirut and had never seen a baseball game or even played catch. But I KNEW, since I was a red-blooded American kid, that I WAS a baseball fan…and those two redbirds captured my allegiance forever!

Predictions: The Cardinals WILL win 100 games again, mostly because Mark Mulder will have an even better season…and the bullpen will far exceeod expectations. Biggest disappointment? Atlanta AND Houston! The Cubs won’t disappoint…they’ll just cave like they always do! The Cardinals will win the NL pennant largely on the strength of their bullpen and starters. And Albert. Rolen will be SUPERB, erasing ALL worries! Houston will NOT be the wild card. Pujols will repeat as MVP. The NL Cy Young will come down to Oswalt, Carpenter…AND Mulder! (Both Cards WILL win 20 games). Barry Bonds will break Ruth’s 714, but will never reach Aaron. This will be his last year…he may even be gone by the All Star break! And ALL of his “records” will have asterisks the size of small planets! WS? The Cardinals over the Yankees in five!!!

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